Short Takes: $29B Afterpay bought by Square; Figure and Starling acquire mortgage biz; Rapyd gets $300MM; Paxos worth $2.4B; Investors Bancorp's $3.5B acquisition; Metaverse DEX; Stoner Cats NFT Fail

Hi Fintech Architects --

Welcome back to the subscribers-only letter! You are the best.

Here are the top updates hitting our radar:

1. Starling Bank acquires Fleet Mortgages for £50 million (link here)

2. Blockchain based Fintech Figure Merges with Mortgage Provider Homebridge Financial Services (link here)

3. The next generation of global payments: Afterpay + Square